UPDATED 1pm: What a low blow! The Irish edition of the Mail on Sunday published several thousand copies today with a spoof wrap-around as if it was the Sunday Tribune, the title that went into receivership last week.

It masqueraded as the Tribune by reproducing its masthead, as the picture above illustrates. Unsurprisingly, it outraged the Tribune's editor, Nóirín Hegarty, who called it "pernicious" and "a false representation".

In my view, it's an obvious case of "passing off" and there could well be copyright implications, even though it carries the line: "This paper is a special edition designed for readers of the Sunday Tribune."

I also think it was in bad taste, given that some 40 journalists, advertising and back office staff, face losing their jobs. Yet there is still a chance, if somewhat remote, that the paper could be saved.

As one tweeter pointed out, it is as if the MoS is dancing on the Tribune's grave before it is formally declared dead. Publication is suspended, but there may be investors willing to risk acquiring the title.

In a statement issued this morning - as reported by RTE - the Tribune referred to it as "a shameless act" by a rival. Hegarty is quoted as saying:

"The Mail On Sunday has shown in this act that it will leave no stone unturned in the race to the bottom.

The Tribune management and staff and, indeed, Jim Luby the receiver, are working flat out in the hope of keeping the newspaper afloat.

We are talking about 43 jobs in Ireland here, not extra remuneration for Associated Newspapers back in the UK.

"This attempt at burial of a still alive corpse and grave robbing by the Mail group is a shameless act of commercial vandalism and I would beseech the fair-minded Irish Sunday newspaper audience to fight back by refusing to buy its titles."

As a marketing stunt, I also find it rather odd. After all, the Irish Mail on Sunday sells 112,000 while the Tribune sells many fewer. According to the last set of ABC figures, it recorded average sales per issue of 54,400.

So the MoS was willing to compromise its own brand by running the fake Tribune front on the off-chance of picking up a few more readers.

In fact, if the Twittersphere response is anything to go by, the MoS has shot itself in the foot. There is no sympathy for the Mail on Sunday's shoddy gimmick.

UPDATE 1pm: An updated RTE story carries a statement from the Irish Mail On Sunday's editor Sebastian Hamilton in which he explains that the wrap-around was a "marketing exercise... to persuade as many Tribune readers as possible to keep buying newspapers."

He claimed that Hegarty urged readers yesterday to buy "an Irish paper" and said: "We wanted to make sure those readers were aware that the Irish Mail on Sunday is an Irish paper.

"It employs 161 people here in Dublin - almost four times as many as the Tribune... is written here, edited here, printed and produced here... today's marketing exercise encourages more people to buy a paper today, surely that is something we should encourage."